The Greatest Trades of All Time: Top Traders Making Big Profits from the Crash of 1929 to Today

CHAPTER 4

John Templeton: Legendary Mutual Fund Manager

John Templeton was a simple, even-tempered gentleman with a sunny disposition and a heart of gold. Growing up in a small town in southern Tennessee, he found a deep devotion to religion.

Unlike many fund managers, Templeton did not choose a career in trading to make money for himself. Instead, he saw managing a mutual fund as helping other people to responsibly invest in themselves and their financial future. He saw himself as a saint whose job it was to help the huddled masses of the world—and he did a lot to further that cause.

Templeton launched and grew one of the largest, most successful mutual funds of the 20th century. His levelheadedness and thrift while investing allowed him maximize net returns for his shareholders without wasting earnings on normal corporate inefficiencies. And although his family is now largely divested from the fund, the fund has become a force in the financial world with over $29 billion under management.

If asked, Templeton would undoubtedly cite his ability to bootstrap his businesses for the benefit of shareholders as his primary competitive advantage. In each of his offices, he operated with the bare minimum of luxuries, using only what was essential for his operation's survival.

WHAT MADE TEMPLETON FAMOUS

Templeton's thriftiness in investing was obvious even in his teen years. When he was only 12 years old, Templeton decided that he wanted to have his own car. In 1924, he went out and ...